Leak Found in Earth’s Atmosphere

ESA’s formation-flying quartet of satellites, Cluster, has discovered that Earth’s atmosphere is constantly leaking Oxygen into Space. Charged oxygen ions, flowing outwards from the polar regions into space. The data collected by Cluster from 2001 to 2003 is used to find the phenomenon. Compared to the Earth’s stock of the life-supporting gas, the amount escaping is negligible.

Image Credit : http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQ8LKRQJF_index_0.html

Obama’s Acceptance Speech

Barack Obama spoke to an audience of 84,000 at Mile High Stadium, on August 28, 2008 in Denver, accepting his official nomination for president of United States.

Human Remains In Sahara

Remains of a tiny woman and 2 children were found in Sahara desert. These skeletons are 5,000 years old and provided clues to two civilizations who lived there, a thousand years apart, when Sahara region was moist and green. Paul Sereno and colleagues from University of Chicago were searching for the remains of dinosaurs in the African country when they came across these skeletons. This hot desert was moist and green at the time people lived there. The first group of people known as the Kiffian, hunted wild animals and colonized the region between10,000 and 8,000 years ago. The second group, Tenerians, lived here between 7,000 and 4,500 years ago. They were smaller and did hunting, fishing and cattle herding. But now Sahara is a desert occupied with hot blowing wind.

Photo Source: http://scienceguy288.files.wordpress.com

Allow Producers to Irradiate Your Vegetables?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved food producers to irradiate vegetables such as spinach and iceberg lettuce to increase the shelf life and also to limit the growth of pathogens especially Salmonella and E. coli.

Although there are many other effective ways available, Irradiation is considered to be safe and effective by FDA. But this may contaminate the mass distribution of food. The irradiation is a Band-Aid solution to keep a broken system in place, but not an ultimate solution. Some consumer groups are worried that irradiated vegetables are inferior, contaminated and unhealthy. But studies done by the FDA showed no relationship between radiation and long-term health risks such as cancer.

Nikon’s D90 Shoots Movie

Nikon introduced a newest DX-format digital SLR, the D90 which is capable of shooting movie. The movie function offered in D90 is a first of its kind in a Digital SLR. The movie function allows to shoot 320 x 216 pixels, 640 x 424 pixels or HD720p (1,280 x 720 pixels) movies at the professional smoothness of 24 frames per second. Nikon ensures much higher quality videos than typical camcorders. D90 also features a wide ISO sensitivity from 200 to 6400 that expands shooting versatility.

I have a Dream

Forty five years ago On 28 August, 1963, Martin Luther King delivered “I have a dream speech” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington which inspired millions around the world towards equality and tolerance. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 4th,1968 Dr King was shot dead in the southern US city of Memphis, Tennessee.

“…I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”. Read the full speech here.

Mac’s Market Share Continues to Grow

Mac’s user base is growing in a rapid phase,thanks to iPod’s popularity. More and more personal users and small business community are moving to Apple’s Mac computers from Windows PC. Analysts believe Mac’s growing popularity is partly due to a “halo effect,” created by Apple’s iPod. Apple had a 10.4 home market share at the end of the first quarter of this year, compared to 7.5 percent for the first quarter of 2007, and 5.4 percent for the first quarter of 2006. Release of Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista also helped Mac to furthered its success.

Cattle Have Sense Of Direction

Google Earth satellite images helped researchers, and revealed that cattle tend to face north-south direction while grazing or resting. Other field observations of red and roe deer also revealed this. Both cattle and deer faced a more magnetic north-south direction rather than geographic north-south.

Other animals such as birds, turtles and salmon migrate using a sense of magnetic direction. Small mammals such as rodents and bats also have inner magnetic compass.

Birth of Two New Nations.

Russia formally recognizes the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have had de facto independence since the early 1990s, thanked Russia. The US state department had said that recognition of the two provinces’ independence would be “a violation of Georgian territorial integrity” and “inconsistent with international law”. Russian president Medvedev called on all other countries to follow suit.“That was a no easy choice to make, but it is the sole chance of saving people’s lives,” he said. US and western European countries recognized Kosovo’s independence early this year amid strong protection from Russia. There are 192 member countries in United Nations, even though Kosovo and Vatican City are recognized as independent countries they are not members of UN. With the addition of two new countries there are 196 countries in the world now.

Cure For Tuberculosis

According to a research, Tuberculosis is resistant to many current treatments, but now, it can be overcome with aggressive therapy. TB is associated with high rates of mortality and it is responsible for at least 7% of cases of the infection worldwide. Researchers have proved that the cure is possible with a combination of at least 5 drugs. MDR TB is a Multi-drug resistant TB, and it is resistant to the commonly used treatments such as isoniazid and rifampin. With this treatment almost half of XDR-TB patients and 67% of MDR-TB patients had treatment cure or completion.

Monkey Helps Relatives and Friends, So Do You

Capuchin monkeys try to choose options that get food for others. When they are paired with relative or friend, the monkeys choose double reward “prosocial” choice than ” Self-fish” choice. But when it comes to strangers, they choose “self-fish” option. In the study monkeys were given tokens to exchange for food. One token got them a slice of apple. The other also got an apple slice, plus a similar slice to another monkey. When it comes to partner or familiar monkey from the same social group, the one choosing the token moved closer to the other monkey and choose the token that got them both food. But when the other monkey was a stranger, they choose selfish token to get food just for them.

Nokia Unveiled new Smartphone N85

Nokia unveiled the Nokia N85, the latest Nokia Nseries multimedia computer made to set new standards for mobile entertainment, gaming and sharing. N85 has a 2.6″ OLED screen, in-built FM transmitter and a 5 megapixel camera. The Nokia N85 is expected to begin shipping in October 2008. Each Nokia N85 comes with an 8 GB microSD card, up to 30 hours of music playback time.

Cell Phones For Hearing Impaired

Researchers from University of Washington has created a software that for the first time helps deaf and hard-of-hearing people to use sign language over a mobile phone.

Imagine A World Without Wires

The power is everywhere, like god. You wouldn’t know where the power is coming from. You don’t need cords or batteries for your gadgets and computers. The laptop could be recharged when the machine gets within several feet of a transmit resonator. This reasoner could be embedded in tables, work surfaces, and even behind walls. This is one of the Intel’s technology which relies on an idea called magnetic induction. A principle similar to the way a trained singer can shatter a glass using the voice (frequency). Power can be put into magnetic fields at a transmitting resonator at the wall socket. The receiving resonator is tuned to absorb energy from the magnetic field.

In this research, Intel has built a sample light bulb to make a 60-watt glow from an energy source 3 feet away. This was achieved with high efficiency and only a quarter of the energy has been lost. Researchers admitted the technology will be on market in at least five year.

Image Credit: www.boisepubliclibrary.org

The World’s Cheapest Car At Risk

The Tata group is threatened to move an important auto factory out of India. This move could delay the debut of the world’s cheapest car, pint-sized Nano, priced at $2,500. It was scheduled to go on sale by the end of the year.

Protesters are angry farmers who claim not to have received proper compensation for the 997 acres Tata acquired. The opposition party, which has led the fight against Tata, requested the company to return 400 acres to the farmers. Company chairman Ratan Tata said that he is prepared to leave West Bengal if the protests continue.

61 Year Old Woman Had A Baby

A Japanese woman aged 61 gave birth to her grandchild. Her daughter donated an egg a clinic said on August 22, 2008. Surrogate births are rare in Japan and banned by industry groups, but it is not illegal. The Clinic refused to provide information regarding the baby. This procedure has been done because the woman’s daughter has no uterus. Both surrogate mother and baby were fine.

Image Credit: www.solarnavigator.net

Reason For Peacock’s Colorful Tail

Even Charles Darwin struggled to explain why the bird should have this burdensome trait. When there are many potential danger related to the colourful tail, why this bird got this trait. Darwin finally got the idea of sexual selection, which provides an advantage in the competition for mates and that outweighed other disadvantages. While humans are attracted to symmetrical faces and other outward signs of fitness, these birds are attracted to colourful tails. The male specific traits are evolved with the changing preferences of females. When the female tastes change, these traits go away.

Image credit : http://blog.oregonlive.com

Microsot Resosponds to Mac ad, enlists Seinfeld

The “Get a Mac” campaign may one of the reasons behind Apple’s rising market share in computer industry. Now Microsoft is fighting back with its own ad campaign. Seinfeld will be one of the key celebrity pitchmen in the $300 million ad campaign which is going to be launched soon. The new ad effort is expected to use some variation of the slogan “Windows, Not Walls.” But its doubtful that $300 million is sufficient to reverse the negative public perception of Windows Vista.

Cat Survives a High-speed ride.

In Australia a two year old cat’s morning nap ended up in a high speed ride on the roof of an Ambulance. Chloe the cat’s owner is a paramedic. When he had loaded a patient after an emergency call, he found the cat on the roof of the ambulance. The cat had been on the roof for the 13 km trip at 100km/h.

Image Credit : http://flickr.com/photos/hale_popoki/79633098/

McCain ahead of Obama : POLL

Republican presidential candidate McCain took his first lead on Obama in the monthly Reuters/Zogby poll. Poll shows McCain has a 5 point lead. The poll was conducted among 1 089 votes over the phone. Most national polls have given Obama a narrow lead over McCain throughout the summer. In June Obama had a 5 point lead in the Reuters/Zogby poll. Obama still has a strong support among voters between the ages of 18 and 29. He won 52 percent support among young voters.